Taking a bit of a break from the "Who killed Sara?" debacle--until the end of the episode--this episode of the CW's Arrow featured our origin story of everyone's favorite goth-turned-IT-girl, Felicity Smoak, also featuring her mother. This was a standout episode for Emily Bett-Rickards, who play Felicity, as she was in the spotlight for the entire episode, and was the focus of the flashbacks. We've had a surprisingly low amount of Oliver in China than I expected, even though it seems to finally be interesting in that realm.
Felicity's been pretty on fire with her super-hero shows, too. In my review of the latest episode of The Flash I mentioned how Felicity's presence carried the episode, and I'm not rebuking that. Her return from an essential absence on Arrow from last week was also felt this week, and it was great.
This week's episode was also promoted as Brother Eye, who currently is getting a lot of fame as the A.I. that ruins everything in the DC Universe's future. Read New 52 Future's End for more, written by former Green Arrow writer Jeff Lemire.
Seriously, it got really good really fast.
The episode starts off with Felicity getting two surprise visits: one from Ray Palmer, who wants to ask her out but gets interrupted by the second visit, a blonde woman in a tight blue dress that's low cut and short. Guess who?
Mama Smoak!
Yeah, they really shoved down your throat how different the two are solely by appearance this week. We find out that Felicity's mother is actually a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas and has just popped by to see her daughter, oh how fun.
That night, when everyone is doing their thing, Oliver goes to see Thea, who tells him she is using money given to her from Malcolm Merlyn to rent an expensive loft. She and Oliver, obviously, disagree, because Oliver sees him as a super-hero and Thea sees him as a father. Suddenly, all around Starling City, the power goes out, and all TV and computer screens are replaced with what seems to be a replica of Sauron's Eye from "The Lord of the Rings" films. Seriously, it's Sauron.
How cool would that be?
Instead, it's just Brother Eye who promises to ruin the city and blah blah blah. But, Felicity finds that she is unable to shut down Brother Eye due to a code she wrote five years ago.
In the flashbacks, we see a very goth-Felicity trying to hack into some government mainframes for funsies--isn't that how you spent your years in school?--but her boyfriend, Cooper Sheldon (yes...yes that's his name), goes too far and tries to eliminate student loans. He succeeds and they think he gets away with it only to be arrested by the FBI one flashback later. Oops. Felicity, though, gets off the hook as Cooper admits he was the one that created the super-virus that managed to get them past the big firewall, even thought it was Felicity who really did it.
Brother Eye shuts down Starling National Bank and thus people try to break in. Since the District Attorney is conveniently out of town for the episode, Laurel is put in charge. Yeah, the same woman who just some months of go was having drinking and drug problems is now the District Attorney of Starling City for a few days. Nice job. And in her rage--since she's been working out with Ted Grant to get it out but just can't--she sends a riot patrol team to stop the masses, inadvertently creating a riot. Oliver and Roy arrive to stop them and do so successfully.
Felicity refuses to give the details on her past life as Oliver has yet to do the same for her and instead they just get the address of Cooper's roommate who also had the code, finding out that neither he nor his constituents are Brother Eye. Felicity has a meltdown when Oliver confronts her about it, having to tell Oliver that Cooper committed suicide while in prison.
Ray Palmer tries to help her out and her mother arrives too but Felicity instead berates her for working as a skimpy waitress in Vegas and dressing like such, since she thinks that's what she wanted for Felicity, or at least something similar. Her mother assures that she did all she could to help raise Felicity since her father split on them when she was little, a small factoid you might remember from season two when Moira was running for mayor.
Oliver and Thea meet up, with Thea trying to get into the locked door to the Foundry but find she can't, as she's trying to get the club up and running. There, she admits to being forced into liking Oliver as a brother not because she wants to be because they're family, and that she wants to rebuild their relationship but he has to be more accepting of her.
The two return to the Foundry where Oliver relieves her of her duties, and Felicity goes to see her mom. The two are about to share a moment when the real villains of the episode arrive. And it's revealed that it's...
Cooper.
Yeah, not at all a big twist. He was the only one left that could use the code and unless it was really some A.I. it was obviously going to be him. I'm not too found of the idea of Brother Eye in this episode being some geek--not to make fun of geeks, being on obviously--who thinks he's powerful and who has a gun. Pretty lame. In the comic currently he's associated with Brainiac. Kind of a step down, wouldn't you say?
But yeah, Cooper flew in Felicity's mother, who I just realized is never given a name, and is using her as leverage for Felicity to direct some bank money movement to the Brother Eye hideout. She complies and is saved by a Deus Ex Machina that Ray Palmer gave Felicity's mother to contact Oliver, who arrives promptly before Cooper can kill Felicity.
In a pretty impressive feat, Oliver is able to defeat some motion sensor weaponry, moving nimbly and resembling his fighting on the island. Outside, Roy, as Arsenal, and Diggle--wearing a ski-mask--take on the goons. Roy constantly displays worry that he is out of it while shooting, a reminder that he's been out of his groove for a while now. Back inside, Felicity manages to take down Cooper, displaying some hidden training I see.
Back in the Foundry, following the victory, Oliver and Felicity both tell each other to see their families. Felicity decides to hang out with her mom during her final day in Starling City, and Oliver goes to hang out with Thea, watching an old movie while Malcolm Merlyn watches from above. I really can't tell if his look was that of jealousy or him just being, "Yes, yes, get closer you two, mwahahaha, I will be evil soon." Because that's what he does.
But, the episode can't end without a twist, as we see Roy dreaming. In the dream, though, we see that Roy, in his red-hoodie and looked like he did with the Mirakuru, is throwing arrows into Sara on the rooftop what the heck guys.
Did Roy kill Sara?
Let's look at the facts; Archer? Roy. Quick? Roy. Voice-changer?...maybe...
I really hope it wasn't Roy and that it's just some residual Mirakuru that's still in his body thinking that it was him, since at one time he and Sara were kind of at odds. Plus it wouldn't make any sense for him to kill Sara. What motivation would he have? If it were Komodo, I could see him as a hired mercenary or as someone trying to kill someone close to Oliver. If it were Malcolm/ Thea, which would be lame if it were Thea, I could see it as trying to hit Oliver where it hurts.
Having it be Roy would be. I don't know, wrong. It would hurt Roy as a character in my eyes. He's finally the hero we've been waiting for him to be and now he does this? Just, no!
Next week, though, promises to surround Roy as this week did Felicity. Which is good, we haven't gotten a Roy episode yet and he's long overdue for one. Hopefully the air will clear up for him and he'll be revealed to not be the killer.
Also: Laurel choosing the black training garb from Ted? Subtle, writers. Nice.
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